Sharpening Settings in Vegas?

[Chuck Fryberger]

Just wondering what kind of sharpening everyone is using in Vegas. I did a quick test today with a crappy chart I printed off the internet, just to have something to sharpen.

I'm liking the look at 75% sharpening the best, but this is WAY more than I'm used to using. On my HVX-200 footage I used to leave the sharpening at 0% for my desired effect, but is this because the Panasonic has some in-camera sharpening going on?

So weigh in and post up some examples! Here's mine, in ascending order of sharpening-ness. Shot with a Red One, Nikon 35mm Prime at f2.0. Sharpened from no plugin all the way up to 100%.

[Brian Kaz]

My favorite sharpen setting in Vegas is 0 which tends to be just enough for me. I'm liking the combo of 0 sharpen & the new "soft contrast" effect like below...



Here's without these effects:



Sometimes, even 0 sharpen is too much. Notice the branches against the sky in the pic below (disregard the crazy color, I'm still working on a special "vivid red/orange fall look" for my feature)...



Here's without 0 Sharpen...

[Brian Kaz]

I liked the sharpened grass, So what I did was make a feathered matte with the sharpened footage visible only below the sky...

[Miguel "Macgregor" De Olaso]

I usually add the sharpen filter and leave it as it comes, 0.

Kaz how do you make mattes? I use cookie cutter.

By soft contrast you mean the Fill light FX? IT´s an awesome filter, and thanks Sony bought the company and now comes standard.

[Brian Kaz]

Kaz how do you make mattes? I use cookie cutter.

By soft contrast you mean the Fill light FX? IT´s an awesome filter, and thanks Sony bought the company and now comes standard.

For the example above, I took two layers of the same video (sharpened on bottom & untouched on top) then used the masking tool on the top layer to select just the upper portion and added feathering.

By soft contrast, I mean soft contrast! That's what it's called. It gives more contrast "depth" and lets you add varying degrees of diffusion. Seems very similar to the effect Magic Bullet Looks gives.